October 10, 2008

My thoughts

I have really appreciate the opportunity to be part of Extension 2.0. I was familiar with some of the tools, but others were pretty new to me. It was helpful to use real work life situations (examples) in the the course. I also really was glad that we needed to practice trying several aspects. This summer I developed the orientation for State Fair judges for the MN 4-H program. We discussed self directed learning and the concept of 'FLOW", which I have really got into to "FLOW" while working on Extension 2.0. I could spend a lot of time working on this class, yet always had other work waiting for my attention.

We are using several aspects of the course in work with the 4-H program. I like using the WIki, UMConnect, and the RSS feeds (although I think I have more to learn). I still don't have my digital pictures downloaded off my camera, but it is on the list for the weekend.

One suggestion for a future experience, would be a UMConnect webinar to discuss peoples experiences. I know that people have commented on-line and we can look at other blogs, however sometime the oral discussion can be benefical to help connect staff working in various areas of Extension.

I would be interested in doing another course, such as this one. I enjoyed it and feel better prepared to work with the various tools.

October 7, 2008

UM Connect

We use UMConnect quite a bit in 4-H Youth Development. We use it for our youth leadership initiative, which has staff members at distances from Roseau to Rochester. We also use it every other month when we connect with Regional Directors to highlight a particular 4-H youth development program. It was good to go in and set up a meeting myself, since I have not usually been the person doing so. I have shared my computer screen when on calls and used the chat feature.

It is one of the tools I really appreciate in my work. My husband used to tell our kids that I went to meetings, now he just tells them I have conference calls, which are much easier with UMConnect.

September 25, 2008

Communication

I am starting to believe that I will need to learn how to text message, as well as use jabber. I have only received a couple of text messages in my life (from my cell phone company reminding me to pay the bill). I was with a colleague the other day and was amazed at how many times she could connect with her family, without having to actually talk with them. I enjoyed looking at tweeter.

I will think I will start with jabber, which could be a great aid in my work.

September 24, 2008

Social Networking

I have had to some experience with My Space, with youth involved in the 4-H program. It was very interesting, especially when I had to explain to a parent that her daughters picture was on a much older persons My Space page.

I have been on Linked In, thanks for my friend Mary. I just spent some time reviewing her connections and adding some to mine. I could spend a lot of time on that site, however needed to write this blog entry and get to other things on my desk.

New Tools to use

I think it would be great to use Google doc to share documents back and forth with colleagues in different regional offices. This would be easier than using track changes and sending back and forth. It would also allow you to make them at the same time, just in different locations.

I plan to spend more time reviewing the other tools, however it can get difficult to learn new ways of working, when you think what you're doing now works fine

WIki's

I am on a roll now. Two more entries on my blog before 12 noon. My colleague (and co-chair) Brian McNeill developed a Wiki site for the Youth Leadership Initiative in 4-H Youth Development. Our team (which consists of 7 staff who live from Roseau to Spring Valley) used our Wiki to update a purpose statement, timeline, and share information with each other. It was very helpful yesterday in our face to face meeting, as we could edit information and review it all at once, rather than email it back and forth.

We do use a Wiki for other 4-H Youth Development programs, which has been helpful to the staff.

Podcasts

I have been out of the office a lot this month, and thus have not been able to work on Extension 2.0. I'm so glad that my morning meeting was postponed, so I can get caught up a bit.

I just received a IPod Nano for my birthday. My 16 year old neighbor added tunes to it for me, however I need to learn more about using it, so I can use it to its potential. I was able to search youth leadership and youth development on podnova, adding two feeds to bloglines.

I am learning a lot through this on-line course. I even referenced it when I did 4-H Judges Orientation at the MN State Fair.

August 20, 2008

Flicker

I certainly can learn a lot from Flicker. I hate to admit it, however I still have all the photos on my digital camera I received for Christmas and have not downloaded any of them. The main reason I wanted my own digital camera, is that my husband never printed the photos that he took on his camera. I need to figure that out and then start using a method of sharing the photos.

I know that we have used Flicker for 4-H youth development photo sharing. I think it is great to be able to do so many things with photos on-line.

RSS Feed

I learned something new today. I like the idea of a feed, so you don't need to keep checking bookmarks. I subsribed to bloglines, which was easy to do. The first few feeds, I didn't know that I was suppose to also click the submit button, so went back to add feeds later. I have added four feeds to my bloglines.

I am sure I could spend a lot more time with this, which would be good and bad. I want to learn more, however I also have other work that needs to be done.

I was on vacation last week and the State Fair starts tomorrow, so lots of catching up and pre-work to get done.

August 6, 2008

My 2nd Blog

Hello,

This is my 2nd time in creating a blog. This summer I started a blog for the University hired 4-H Summer Interns. I have updated it each week, with a question for interns to respond to and share their thoughts with each other. There was quite a bit of traffic on in in June, but it has slowed down recently. I already have ideas on what I can do different next year.

I really like the Extension 2.0 information and it is great to be able to learn all of the information on-line and at our desks.